The maiden and only cabinet meeting so far chaired by President Tinubu was held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on August 28.
President Bola Tinubu has only held one Federal Executive Council meeting since his inauguration as President on May 29, 2023, due to his failing health, SaharaReporters has learnt.
The maiden and only cabinet meeting so far chaired by President Tinubu was held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on August 28.
It is not clear how the 48 ministers appointed by Tinubu have been giving briefings and taking directives from the President in the absence of weekly FEC meetings.
Meanwhile, according to Section 148 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, The President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice-President and all the Ministers of the Government of the Federation for the purposes of - (a) determining the general direction of domestic and foreign policies of the Government of the Federation; (b) co-ordinating the activities of the President, the Vice-President and the Ministers of the Government of the Federation in the discharge of their executive responsibilities; and (c) advising the President generally in discharge of his executive functions other than those functions with respect to which he is required by this Constitution to seek the advice or act on the recommendation of any other person or body.
However, SaharaReporters has exclusively learnt that the President has been ill and therefore unable to fully discharge his responsibilities in office.
In early September, Tinubu left Nigeria on Monday, September 4, 2023, to attend the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India.
He returned to Abuja on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, after stopping over in the United Arab Emirates following the G20 summit in India.
Then on Sunday, September 17, Tinubu left Abuja for New York to attend the 78th UN General Assembly. Tinubu, however, did not return to Abuja until Friday, September 29 ahead of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Anniversary on October 1 and one week after he attended the 78th UNGA from September 19 to 23.
An authoritative source has however told SaharaReporters that the President returned to Abuja on September 29 without the usual welcoming ceremony at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
“Tinubu has not been having FEC meetings. Even when arrived from his trip to New York, United States for UNGA, there was no airport ceremony to welcome him.
“His car had to be driven to where he would alight the plane from the stairs because he was sick,” the Presidency source said.
Also, according to the source, the President had a secret meeting with a Nigerian-Lebanese developer with alleged criminal records, Gilbert Chagoury, last week
In September, SaharaReporters reported that the multi-billion-naira firm awarded the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Hitech Road Construction Company, a subsidiary of Hitech Construction Company was owned by Chagoury.
Chagoury is an ally of President Tinubu.
The Nigerian government had unveiled the plan for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway and according to David Umahi, the Minister of Works, Hitech Construction would fund the project under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Hitech is a division of the Chagoury Group, a business conglomerate owned by Chagoury, a known ally of the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Eko Atlantic in Lagos is also the brainchild of the businessman.
Years back, Chagoury was banned from getting a visa on terrorism grounds for allegedly funding a political coalition, Hezbollah, which the United States deems a terrorism group.
He was also in the past accused of drug dealings by the US and Lebanese governments.
The Los Angeles Times, which did a deep dive on Chagoury — in its August 30, 2016 edition, said that Chagoury’s visa troubles likely stem from his support of a Christian Lebanese politician.
The politician, Michel Aoun, is part of the same political coalition as Hezbollah, which the United States deems a terror group.
“Chagoury’s name has been brought up of late, because of an ask Clinton Foundation head Doug Band made of Hillary Clinton’s State Department – he wanted to put the donor, whose parents were Lebanese, in touch with the American government’s top Lebanon person,’’ the US’ daily had stated.
‘’Donald Trump, among others, used the correspondence to try and show that the Clintons were running a ‘pay-for-play’ enterprise between the State Department and the family foundation, where Chagoury had been a million dollar donor.’’
Since the 1990s, Chagoury was reported to have cultivated a friendship with the Clinton family, in part by writing big checks, including an estimated $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, this is despite being a non-citizen forbidden by law to make donations to the campaigns of US politicians.
He however flouted that law with his numerous donations. By the time Hillary Clinton became the Secretary of State, the relationship was strong enough for one of Bill Clinton’s closest aides to push for Chagoury to get access to top diplomats and thus began the US exploring a deal to build a consulate at the Eko Atlantic city.
Between 2012 and 2016, he sought to help fund election campaigns of some US politicians. He donated to the Republicans and was listed as a sponsor for a 2014 art exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
One other campaign he funded was that of Jeff Fortenberry, a US lawmaker, in 2016.
Fortenberry was later convicted of concealing information and making false statements to US federal authorities who were investigating illegal contributions made by Chagoury who is a foreign national, to his re-election campaign.
Fortenberry resigned from office after his conviction.
However, in 2019, Chagoury reportedly paid $1.8 million in fines to resolve the investigation when it began.
Born in Nigeria to Lebanese immigrants, the businessman flourished in the 1990s through his close association with the late dictator, Sani Abacha by receiving development deals and oil franchises.
After Abacha died in 1998, the Nigerian government hired lawyers to track down funds stolen through associates of the late dictator.
The trail led to bank accounts all over the world, some under Gilbert Chagoury’s control.
In 2000, the Lebanese businessman was convicted by a Swiss court for laundering some of the funds Abacha looted from Nigeria.
He agreed to pay a fine of about 1 million Swiss francs (about $600,000) at that time to get his Swiss conviction expunged and handed back $66 million to the Nigerian government but denied knowing the funds were stolen
Chagoury later returned to Nigeria in the early 2000 and from there became a business partner with Tinubu, who was then governor of Lagos State.